Your 12 Types of Intelligence and Simple Strategies to Improve Each

Do you know someone who is a whiz with numbers, but can’t carry a conversation? Or a friend who can speak four languages, but it takes them awhile to calculate a tip? Most of us do. What’s up with these people?

Our friends have a “mono-endowed” intelligence. They are brilliant at one thing but foolish at others. Some mono-endowed intelligences are so smart they become “celebrated” and known for their incredible work, art, thoughts, abilities or skills (examples below).

Whether you’re a celebrated genius (top 1%) or a simple Joe, we all have a responsibility to discern which types of intelligences we need to improve so we can live to our maximum potential. Without further adieu, here are the 12 Types of Intelligence and some simple, effective ways to increase your smarts for each type of intelligence.

1. Somatic Intelligence

Remember James Brown tearing it up on the dance floor? I don’t – but he makes the dance floor geniuses of this generation (Michael Jackson, Usher and Chris Brown) look like a bunch of knock-off chumps (video of James Brown). He had bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, as do athletes, builders, actors, or surgeons (if they have fine motor skills). To increase your Somatic Intelligence make crafts, ride a bike, do yoga, learn tai chi or try the Wave Dance.

Shakira

2. Communicative Intelligence

People with strong Communicative Intelligence are good at organizing people and are aware of moods and motivations. They’re natural leaders. They’re good with body language, speaking and acting. To up your communication skills, practice active listening—that is, repeat back what you think someone said. .

Cindy Crawford

3. Contextual Intelligence

Practical or contextual intelligence, deals with the mental activity involved in matching situations and contexts. In other words, street smarts and common sense. To improve your Contextual Intelligence try vagabonding (spontaneous travel), starting your own business or fighting the Nazis to save your country. Each relies on making decisions based on varying situations and contexts.

Winston Churchill

4. Spatial Intelligence

Those with strong spatial intelligence can imagine, understand, and represent the visual-spatial world. They may have a good sense of direction, hand-eye coordination, and visual memory. Some people, for instance, can visualize how furniture fits in a room without measurements, or buy a scarf that matches the blue in a blouse at home (perfect “chromatic pitch”). To strengthen your spatial intelligence, be a backseat driver and provide directions for a trip, fit the groceries in the bag or the car, play with jigsaw puzzles and mazes, build some Lego’s or sculpt clay.

Albert Einstein

5. Linguistic Intelligence

Linguistic intelligence reflects the ability to read, write, tell stories, and learn languages, grammar, and syntax. Strengthen this ability by studying a new language, improving vocabulary and writing. For personal evolution focus on learning new languages to broaden your Universalism. For writing focus on communication. I recommend the book On Writing Well.

William Shakespeare

6. Internal Intelligence

Internal Intelligence (also called Crystallized Intelligence) is the ability to bring previously acquired, sometimes culturally defined, problem-solving methods to bear on current problem. Note that this implies both that the problem solver knows the methods and recognizes that they are relevant in the current situation. To increase your Internal Intelligence play a game of chess, start a business or join a volunteer organization.

Anatoly Karpov

7. Psychic Intelligence

Psychic intelligence is a measure of how intuitively perceptive you are and how willing you are to trust and act on those perceptions (think Jedis). People with a high Psychic Intelligence have OBEs, communicate with non-physical beings, have clairvoyant flashes, and experience surges of synchronicities. Psychic Intelligence can be increased in may ways including having physic experiences, doing energy work and playing intuitive games.

Jose Arigo

8. Evolutionary Intelligence

People with this type of intelligence are those who seem “wise beyond their years” or “an old soul.” Often, they can tell you about their past lives, show a high literacy for multidimensional realities and karmic effect. They are more “universalistic” in that they are tolerant, peaceful and respectful of diversity. To increase your Evolutionary Intelligence explore the nature of reality or the nature of yourself. Visit the IAC or the Institute of Noetic Sciences for more resources.

Allan Kardec

9. Experimental Intelligence

Experiential Intelligence is based on accumulating knowledge, skills and experience in both informal and formal learning environments. Such knowledge and experience can lead to a high level of expertise in one or more fields. People who live in “rich” learning environments have a significant intelligence advantage over people who grow up in less stimulating environments. To increase your Experimental Intelligence immerse yourself in novel situations and environments. Create and automate ways of dealing with new situations so they are easy to handle in the future. Think new thoughts and develop original ideas.

Emerson Fittipaldi

10. Logistic Intelligence

Your friendly computer programmer has logical-mathematical intelligence. Anyone who is comfortable with numbers, logic, statistics, reasoning, and abstractions has a strong Logistic Intelligence. To increase logical ability, get a book of logic games, knit a sweater or learn computer programming.

Leonhard Euler

11. Musical Intelligence

Those with strong musical intelligence are sensitive to sounds, tones, rhythms, pitch, musical keys, and structure of the songs (from verse and chorus to symphonies). Borrow different types of music CDs, sing with the radio, be quiet and listen to the sounds around you.

Ludwig van Beethoven

12. Personal Intelligence

Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to be self-aware and explore emotions, goals and motivations. This perspective on the human condition is used by writers, philosophers, psychologists, and theologians. To improve your intrapersonal intelligence, “know thyself”—write in a journal, meditate or learn about personalities with the Myers-Briggs test (psychological preferences such as extraversion and introversion) or the Enneagram (a theory of nine personality types—possibly centuries old).

Carl Jung

—-Notes, Links, Sources—-

Definition of Intelligence

The following definition is a composite from various authors. Intelligence is a combination of the ability to:

1. Learn. This includes all kinds of informal and formal learning via any combination of experience, education, and training.
2. Pose problems. This includes recognizing problem situations and transforming them into more clearly defined problems.
3. Solve problems. This includes solving problems, accomplishing tasks, fashioning products, and doing complex projects.

Please note the difference between “wisdom” and “intelligence.” Wisdom is the result of experience. Intelligence is something that can be trained and developed.

Intelligence Theories

The study and measurement of intelligence has been an important research topic for nearly 100 years. There is no clear agreement as to what constitutes IQ or how to measure it. There is an extensive and continually growing collection of research papers on the topic. Howard Gardner (1983, 1993), Robert Sternberg (1988, 1997), and David Perkins (1995) have written widely sold books that summarize the literature and present their own specific points of view.

1. Dr. Howard Gardener, who created the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, outlined 9 Types of Intelligence.

2. The triarchic theory of intelligence was formulated by Robert J. Sternberg,

3. David Perkins, researcher and author, created the Educational Theory.